The ice cream truck plays turkey in the straw in an endless
loop
A clarion call to the children to come running before it
moves on.
The last calliope strains of the season will soon pass into
silence
Until next year and until the time for this cultural icon passes
on.
The blue jays flock through sounding their bubbly migration “deedleleap”
Passing over the ice cream truck and the humans all around
Continuing their instinctive travels navigating a changing
environment
Calling back and forth in the treetops announcing “I’m here,
I’m coming”.
My eyes are closed listening and resting quietly on Labor
Day weekend
Daydreaming about this week’s transition back to school new
beginnings
Thinking of my daughter about to teach her own fifth grade
the first time
Preparing for this her whole life and now her classroom is ready
to come alive.
Me, too, I am entirely ready to learn new things and meet
new friends
Attending my school the whole wide world and everyone who is
in it
Where everything is interesting if you are looking to make
new connections
Finding so many people engaged in thinking about solving
problems.
In the evening the gathering starling flocks assemble
emitting their complex whistles
Such a chorus of building expectation as their departure
date approaches.
Then after dark the insect percussion concert comes up,
katydids and crickets
Living out their end of days until the autumn chill slows
and stops their notes.
But underneath the annual rhythm of temperature change life
cycles
The baseline climate is heating, the ocean is rising, alarms
are ringing dire warnings
How human society based on private profit is destroying life
on earth
How much we need a sweeping culture changeover to science
promoting social good.
I hope to live to see the day that revolution so long in coming
suddenly arrives
Like a tsunami sweeping away this system of exploitation of
people and resources
Bringing a future of enlightened human management of the
earth as our garden
Benefiting everyone, enjoying the diversity and resilience
of all forms of life.
